Welcome to this week’s dev update for Tales of Fablecraft, Mages!
Today, we’re ready to share more details about some upcoming Homebrew tools and some great tweaks we’re making for the Turn Tracker’s user experience. That last one is one our internal playtests reveal a lot, and it’s even something you players want!
By the way, have you used our feedback board yet? Share your feature requests and feedback, comment on other posts, and upvote the bits you want most. This is one way we organize and prioritize player feedback, so we welcome your thoughts!
Back to this week’s update… Let’s begin.
Homebrew Music and Soundcapes for pitch-perfect atmosphere
We’re putting the finishing touches on the next of a slew of Homebrew tools for Fablecraft now: Homebrew Music and Soundscapes.
When Fablecraft launches into Early Access this summer, GMs can upload their own custom soundscapes and music for use during Adventures. Files must be in MP3 format and can be up to 20 MB in size.
Once uploaded, the soundscapes and music will function exactly like the tracks our team’s already made. They’ll live in the Jukebox on the side tray, and music and soundscapes can be played at the same time in order to really nail that busy city street atmosphere GMs might be going for.
Homebrew Battlemaps are still on the way, too
We’re working on Homebrew Battlemaps, and we have a lot in store for how these function and what we’ll support. Homebrew Battlemaps likely won’t make it into Fablecraft in time for Early Access launch, but they are next up on in our queue of Homebrew features.
The image below is a design work in progress, but it does feature the functionality we’re going for.
GMs will be able to upload custom images (and, likely later, animated images) for the backdrop of their battlemaps. They’ll then be able to use the in-game tools to define line of sight, walls, and terrain that can’t be traversed.
We know that folks use lots of different third-party applications to design battlemaps. While we’re not ready to signal that this is definitely coming, we can share that we’re working to make importing battlemaps made by other applications possible. We’ll talk more about that as we get closer to releasing the feature.
We’ve enhanced the Turn Tracker for better usability in combat
“Hey, it’s your turn.”
“HEY!”
That sound familiar?
One of the more requested UX features from within the Riftweaver team is a Turn Tracker that better signals when it’s someone’s turn during combat.
We’re all guilty of looking away from the Battlemap in order to check our phones, grab a fresh drink, or dip a chip. With the current Turn Tracker, it’s easy to miss the “Your Turn” notification and accidentally leave your party waiting.
So, we’re improving the user experience for the Turn Tracker significantly in a few ways.
When it’s your turn, and you don’t immediately act, the Turn Tracker and your Player Token will flash to let you know that the game is waiting for you to move.
When the GM pauses combat, the Turn Tracker changes colors and gently flashes to signal that it is paused.
Finally, we’ve updated the Turn Tracker's display just a bit to better indicate that you can actually scroll through it with the mouse wheel.
That’s it for this week’s update! We might have something really special to share next week, so please stay tuned.
Until then, join our Discord to chat with like-minded Mages and the Riftweaver team! We’ll see you there!
🧙